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Tea Press Sipdown (379)!

In a rough place right now…

Yesterday was my day off, so I decided that I’d make some tea and head down to the mall to surprise my boyfriend with a visit. I haven’t really done that in a long time, and I thought it would be a nice/sweet thing to do since this week has been… hard.

I even picked this tea specifically because of its Irish inspiration. I thought it would be a nice tea to share with him, seeing as he’s Irish and very proud of his heritage. I made it with milk and sugar, just like he takes it too..

I don’t think it’s worth going into all of the details, but it was a BAD afternoon. I mean, it’s been a stressful month. He’s very close to 50 days of straight work, with out any days off AT ALL, between two jobs. Gradually, the higher than number count has gotten, he’s become more distant, and less affectionate. This last week, he’s just bee flat out mean. To everyone – and its come off in a way where he almost seems proud of it. It’s just been grating, trying to be this positive force and supportive when I’m only met with sarcasm, and cruel remarks. Insults every time I wear anything Halloween related (my favourite holiday, his least), being flat out told that there was no way I was going to be able to pull off the cosplay I have planned for comic con, told that the colour I dyed my hair looked awful on me…

So anyway, on his lunch break I went shopping with him and he kept asking my opinion on the clothing he was looking at. “Does this print look good?” “What colour do you like?” “Which gloves would look good with my coat?” Every time I gave an opinion he’d tell me it was wrong, or that I had no taste in men’s fashion. Or just glare at me, as if I was an idiot for what I was thinking. It was finally just too much, and despite my best efforts I felt several tears roll down my cheek.

After that he just kept pressing me over and over to tell him what was wrong, and finally I just buckled and told him that while I’ve never had an issue with sarcastic banter or the occasional snide remark (I think some of the strongest relationships are built around that sort of playful/sarcastic teasing form of flirtation) that it stops being fun/playful when it goes on for over a week, without any sort of compassion/affectionate actions inbetween to balance it out. That I wasn’t mad at him, but that I felt broken, beaten down, and just… like he resented me.

After that I just stood at his desk for an hour and just silently cried, while he said nothing/wouldn’t make eye contact with me. A few times I asked if he wanted me to leave, and he just nodded his head no. So I stayed, and I felt foolish for the tears streaming down my face. Finally, when he got off work, we went and walked to his bus stop, and he broke up with me.

And now I just feel… lost.

All evening I tried to figure out exactly at what point things changed for him, if it was my fault or if it was just inevitable. If I’m being honest with myself, I’m not upset that the relationship is over. I think, deep down, I’ve felt that is has been for weeks. I think what I’ve been clinging to, and what I’m mourning the loss of, is losing any sort of relationship with him. I’ve never ever been able to successfully remain friends with someone after breaking up with them, but he was the first person that I deeply believed that would be possible with and who I wanted to try to maintain a friendship with.

Except that’s not what he wants. He’s made that clear. And that hurts. So much.

I’m ready to let go of the relationship, I think, but to let go of the best person I’ve met all year? It’s killing me inside, and now I just don’t know where to go from here…

One thing I guess I’m certain about is that I’m happy this was a sipdown. I don’t know that I could handle holding onto this tea. I just know it’s the tea I’m always going to associate with this breakup. And I doubt I could relive that every time I drink it.

Iced tea.

I thought that based on the name, this would be a great iced tea. The dry leaf smelled really promising; hints of lemon and fresh mango. In reality, I wasn’t very impressed with it. It was really brisk and full bodied, but also quite astringent and a little bit bitter. Also, none of the fruit notes tasted all that fresh or light despite what the dry leaf smelled like.

I mean, it was a whole lot of lemongrass. Like, tons of lemongrass. Lemongrass can be good in moderation but straight up? I’ve never been a fan of the flavour. It’s just too much, and it’s NOT the same as actual lemon. The mango? Didn’t really taste it at all, to be honest. So, it was a let down for sure.

I’ll totally revisit it, but probably as a hot tea. I hope it’s better that way, ’cause this pairing sounds so promising. I was so excited about it…

Steeped up a cup of this at work with some milk, but then we got busy and I had to walk away from the mug for a long period of time to help out some customers.

When I got back to it, it was just a little colder than room temperature but you know what? I think that actually added an interesting element of flavour to the cup. It tasted, instead, like a glass of chocolate milk with a hint of a cooling mint undertone to the finish. Very soft mint notes and strong chocolate elements, but overall a very nice flavour and a really refreshing cup.

Haven’t been a fan of this one in the past, but a customer recently suggest trying it with vanilla agave because it makes it softer, and brings out the sweetness of the grapefruit. I thought it was worth a try, since I have easy access to this one.

And you know what? It was actually a BIG improvement! I mean, I still think there’s way too much ginger in this but that customer was totally right about it creating a smoother overall flavour with less bitterness, and brightening the grapefruit. Of course, that brightness makes the grapefruit taste more candied and less natural but personally I think that’s an ok trade off.

I just know, I finished the mug and actually thought to myself “not bad” which is a BIG improvement from past experiences.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

We were sampling little mini lattes of this the other day as a tie in with last week’s Matcha Power Hour promotion – most of the week we sampled Matcha Matsu but decided to switch it up at our store so people weren’t getting sick of doing the same tea.

Personally, I don’t like Mint Matcha – it’s probably my least favourite of the flavoured matchas that DT carries. I think it’s too sweet, and it reminds me a little bit of toothepaste, though I’ve never been able to place exactly why apart from the obvious mint tie in. I didn’t hate this one this time around though; with the milk it’s definitely a smoother flavour and feels a little less harsh. I think if I were making it for myself, I’d under leaf it to sort of ease up on some of the sweetness – that would be more enjoyable for me, anyway.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Evening cuppa at the store, with some milk added to it.

Usually I really like this tea; I find it soothing/relaxing and very comforting. However something about this mug was actually quite unpleasant. It had a very bitter and harsh edge to it, and a bit of a char sort of taste? I actually didn’t finish the mug, it was that off putting.

It was so unexpected, too! I mean, really – this is generally one of my favourites! No clue what went wrong, either…

Evening cuppa.

Very dark, rich, intense and heavy flavour. Normally I’m not super into really spiced teas, but I just think they tie in so well with the whole carrot cake imagery, and the spice notes in this have weight to them and are accented by underlying sweetness. Lots of ginger and cinnamon, but also nutmeg and clove. In addition there’s the sweetness of carrot with complimenting molasses and brown sugar notes and a hint of roastiness/toastyness in the finish that reminds you that this is indeed a Genmaicha blend.

I can picture exactly the kind of carrot cake this would be: something dark and very moist with giant, visible shreds of carrot in the leaf. Probably with some sort of creamy icing, instead of something light/fluffy and whipped. Maybe with nuts or raisins/currants mixed into the batter too. The kind of carrot cake that melts in your mouth and is almost a sensual experience in and of itself…

Probably like this one: http://www.themainbakery.com/images/cakes/med/carrot.jpg

Oh yeah.

This tea was supposed to come out earlier in the month at the same time as Sticky Rice Oolong and Ruby Oolong, but there were some delivery issues and we got it late. It’s finally here now, though! I was excited to revisit it; it’s been a while since I last had zomba pearls. From DT or otherwise…

I remember this one tasting largely like a mix of butter and lemon, with some of the standard hay/straw notes and a quick skim of my old tasting notes of the last batch of this one (from 2015!) confirm that overall that was my impression of this one.

This time, drinking it, essentially the only thing I tasted was lemon. I mean, it was delicious, bright, and arguably full bodied – and I loved the flavour. I was just expecting something in addition to lemon; some kind of layering of flavours or nuance. This was just sweet lemon curd…

Maybe I’ll need to revisit this one again just to see if that’s consistent. I was going to buy like 30g of this to have a little at home, but now I’m not sure. Even though I did like it, is it worth grabbing if it’s just gonna be really lemony? I have tons of lemony teas at home, don’t really need others.

Friendly reminder that I do not numerically rate DAVIDsTEA blends as I’m currently employed there and it would be an obvious conflict of interest. Any blends you see with numerical ratings were rated prior to my employment there. These reviews are a reflection of my personal thoughts regarding the teas, and not the company’s.

Working on sipping this one down now;

It’s not a tea I dislike by any means but it’s not a favourite either and since I plan on picking up some of the interesting sounding Pu’erh teas from Cornelia Bean in less than a week, when I go on vacation, I’m going to need the tin space that this is currently taking up.

This was yet another mug worth of this tea that tasted like coconut sticky rice; though since I just had actual coconut sticky rice less than a week ago this tea was especially rice heavy since than imagery was fresh in my mind. I wish it was just a little bit sweeter…

Hot cuppa.

Very smooth, and full bodied/brisk. I deeply enjoy the mix of malty, sweet Assam notes and peppermint/spearmint. In this particular cup, the spearmint is stronger which means that overall it’s also sweeter. Spearmint is always sweeter than peppermint. I don’t taste the lemon today, though…

Still pleasant!